Prior art couplers or animal collar fastening devices have been available for strap-like materials or for chains, but not for both types.
Most couplers for strap collars in the past have required the strap material to be permanently fastened to a buckle by stitching or riveting. Such buckles are not suitable for use with chain collars.
The well-known Conway buckle can be used for overlapping and joining the ends of strap material without the necessity of stitching or riveting. However, the Conway buckle is not suitable for coupling the ends of a chain.
Chain collars in past have had their ends coupled by means of ordinary snaps or by S hooks inserted in holes at the opposite ends of a name plate. These link chain coupling means, however are not suitable for coupling strap materials.
The following patents were developed in a preliminary novel search.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 272,036, 115,647, 244,312, 3,585,743, 2,890,534, 1,262,447, 1,803,196, 2,097,070, 3,641,984, 146,770, 1,408,123, 2,065,946, 2,680,315, 1,539,744
It is noted that none of these patents disclose all of the elements of the invention herein or suggest in any unobvious manner the combination of those elements of the invention as disclosed herein.
However, as they are understood by the inventors and their attorney, it is their opinion that the more pertinent of these patents appear to be U.S. Pat. Nos. 244,312, 2,097,070 and 272,036.
U.S. Pat. No. 244,312 discloses a fastening device which includes a pair of curved plates which are adapted to be releasably joined together by aligning a pair of projections on one with mating openings on the other. Upon turning the projections they cannot pass through the registered openings and lock the plates together. The ends of the collar are fixed to respective ends of each plate.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,097,070 discloses a rather complex fastener providing a protective locking device. While a channel like body member is disclosed, it is employed in a quite different manner than that taught by Applicant and does not function or cooperate with the other elements in a similar manner as disclosed in the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 272,036 is representative of many others which disclose the concept of providing means in which to hold and display owner information on the collar. However, like the above-noted patents it is believed that there is no showing or suggestion of the unique combination as taught by applicants in the present invention.
None of these patents disclose a coupler which is easily connected to either strap or chain-like material in a simple and easy manner nor one where a resilient strip functions in a manner to releasably lock the collar ends on post members in the manner shown by applicant. Nor is there a teaching of such a strip which conveniently and economically also functions as a name plate for owner identification purposes or the like.
Since dogs are kept together, it is a well-known problem that the leather collars are readily accessible to be chewed by the other dogs. In view of the cost of typical buckle-type leather collars, replacement is expensive for those owners who choose not to use metal chain collars on their animals. The coupler of the present invention permits one to replace only the leather strap material when necessary since plain strap material is less expensive than a finished collar and is readily adaptable for use with the present invention. None of the cited patents herein disclose such a coupler which can be as easily adapted to both types of collar materials or which functions in the same manner as the present invention to function as a coupler for collars.